Y11 PARENTS: GCSE pass grade lowered to a 4

In a last minute government u-turn, the government has announced that instead of a 4 being required to not resit maths and English for the first 2 years of the new GCSEs, it will be the requirement for the future too, it will never be raised to a 5.

They have also declared that the grade 4 will be called a 'standard pass' and the 5 a 'strong pass'.

This has huge implications for sixth form entry requirements and resits as some had already raised the bar to a 5 in anticipation. It also means that there will be less confusion in the future as DC compare for jobs against future cohorts as the resit requirements will remain the same.

A grade 5 is equivalent to a high C or a low B. If your child was predicted to scrape a B grade in a key subject then, under the old system, that was a pretty respectable result. The new system would have awarded the same student a grade 5 - a good pass - which definitely doesn't have the same kudos attached to it as a grade B which is one above a pass.

And of course if your child was expected to scrape a C grade under the old system the original proposal was to give them a Grade 4 and stress it wasn't a proper pass. At least this way vast numbers of borderline C grade students won't suddenly be classed as having failed and at least the B grade students will get some credit for being ranked a little above a pass.

As the mum of a severely dyslexic son in Y11, this is great news. He may just about scrape a 4 in English, but a 5 is realistically beyond his reach. It would be devastating for him to reach the 4 and then for future employers to not recognise it as a pass.

Educational magic does not satisfactorily explain how pass rate for grades A*-C increased from 40% in 1988 to 70%

Because Ofqual didn't step in until 2012 to fix grade boundaries and stop grade inflation. Before then, exam boards would err on the generous side when deciding grade boundaries, in comparison to the previous year when they were generous based on the year before that and so on.

I think there's much more to it than the lovely, kind exam boards being generous and then extra-generous from around 2005, but regardless it means that given set of results in one year do not equate to the same results several years later.

Well, I am relieved for DD2'sale best friend who is battling ADHD, dyslexia, depression and a completely unsupportive family, because she is in with a shot at passing now. But bloody hell, what an awful way to manage this.

"The higher standard is in line with the average performance in high-performing countries such as Finland, Canada, the Netherlands and Switzerland. It would not be possible to justify placing our bar lower than those of our international competitors .......Every teacher knows that it is only by holding – and sticking to – the highest expectations for young people that we provide them with the opportunity to succeed. These reforms deliver on our commitment to social justice, and represent a balanced plan to ensure that more students leave school equipped for a successful future."

The more I think about this the more concerned I get, if there are two tiers of pass then there will be employers that only accept the higher tier and there could easily be political motivation to make the higher pass a requirement to jobs such as teaching that have fixed requirements a few years down the line.

Well I think there is one thing we can be certain of: The DfE have not thought the potential implications through at all and the true implications will only come out in time.

Though they have clearly thinking about this for a few weeks - that Ofqual advert about the new grading which didn't mention the grade 5 being a good pass was clearly fudged with this decision in mind.